The skaters, returning from a camp to Kansas, were among the 64 passengers of the plane who crashed after an outdoor collision with an American army helicopter near Washington, DC.
The United States’s figure skating organization has confirmed that several skaters were on a regional passenger plane from American Airlines, which crashed near Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia.
The plane, with 64 passengers and the crew, was on the way to Washington, DC, Wichita, Kansas, when he collided outdoors with an American army helicopter late Wednesday.
American skating skating said Thursday that athletes, coaches and family members were returning from the national development camp which was held in collaboration with the American Figure Skating Championships in Kansas.
“We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and closely hold the families of the victims in our hearts,” he said in a statement.
The officials did not say how many people died in the accident, but suggested that there may be no survivors.
Meanwhile, the Russian state media reported earlier than ice skating coaches and former world champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naunov were one of those aboard the plane.
Shishkova and Naumov, who were married, won the world championship in figure skating pairs in 1994.
Their son, Maxim, also a skater, may also have been on the plane, reported the Tass and Ria agencies in Russia.
Inna Volyanskaya, a former skater who competed for the Soviet Union, would also have been on board, said Tass. She was coach at the Washington Figure Skating Club, according to her website.
A Jet of Regional Passenger of American Airlines and a Black Hawk Hawk helicopter of the US Army crashed into the Potomac river after an outdoor collision near the National Aigan Washington airport, officials said.
